Amazon.com Inc. plans to offer brick-and-mortar retailers a checkout system that uses Kindle tablets as soon as this summer, people briefed on the company's plans said.

In one scenario, the Seattle company would give merchants Kindle tablets and credit-card readers, the people said. Amazon also might offer retailers other services, such as website development and data analysis, the people said.

To accelerate the project, Amazon last year bought certain technology and hired some engineers from GoPago Inc., a San Francisco startup that offered checkout systems linked to a smartphone app, the people said. GoPago is now a unit of DoubleBeam Inc.

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Amazon's plans remain fluid and the project might be delayed, altered or canceled, they said.

The project would thrust Amazon, the largest U.S. e-commerce merchant, into the realm of physical retail stores, where more than 90% of commerce is still conducted, and open up a new trove of data from consumers' in-store spending habits.

But it would also inject Amazon into an increasingly crowded arena against the makers of traditional checkout systems, such as VeriFone Systems Inc. and NCR Corp., as well as startups including Square Inc., which offers a credit-card reader that attaches to tablets and smartphones. EBay Inc.'s PayPal unit is testing several ways of extending its strength in electronic payments into the physical world, including its own devices for swiping credit cards.

Because many of the largest physical retailers have extensive, complicated checkout systems that may be difficult or costly to give up, Amazon is likely to focus on smaller retailers.

Apple Inc. is moving into mobile payments and has been meeting with industry executives to discuss options for paying for physical goods on its devices. The iPad and iPhone have become popular payment-processing devices for an array of merchants, from food trucks to Nordstrom Inc.

Amazon would bring strengths and weaknesses to the payment fray. It holds credit-card information from more than 230 million users, exceeding PayPal's 142.6 million. But Amazon has virtually no experience in brick-and-mortar retailing and merchants might be wary of doing business, and sharing customer data, with a competitor.

"The game of mobile payments is going to be won or lost at the physical checkout, that's where nearly all of commerce is done today," said Richard Crone, chief executive of Crone Consulting, a payments advisory firm.

To draw in merchants, Amazon has considered allowing them to offer promotions or discounts through Amazon.com or its Amazon Local daily deals offers, the people briefed on the company's plans said.

"At the end of the day, a merchant wants to make a sale, to drive up business. And if Amazon or anyone else can help them do that, that's tough to turn away," Mr. Crone said.

Amazon also might seek to create a so-called mobile wallet with stored credit-card information to help speed payments, two of the people said. The company last year rolled out a one-click digital button for processing online and mobile payments on other retailers' websites using Amazon customers' credit cards.

Amazon released the Kindle Fire HDX last year, the newest version of its full-featured tablet, touting security software that the company said could benefit businesses.

The Kindle is part of Amazon's broad hardware ambitions, which include a line of smartphones now under development, according to people familiar with the company's plans.

People don't "get" what Amazon's all about. Amazon doesn't make money "selling" anything. They make money on transactions. Millions, billions of transactions. A small piece of each starts adding up. They're not a retailer in the traditional sense; they hardly own any inventory at all. But wherever a transaction occurs, they have an opportunity to make a small amount of money. That's how they can pull off the magic of being profitable every year even though their "margins" are razor-thin. Very low risk factor.

As such, they will offer their services at a more-reasonable price than anyone else, so they can tap into a new revenue stream. A piece of each brick & mortar transaction, going to Amazon instead of somebody else. If it's less-expensive for the retailer to deal with Amazon instead of banks and point-of-sale suppliers, then a deal with the devil might be in order.

The fact that Amazon is putting many community retailers out of business isn't part of some evil master plan. Amazon is just looking for transactions to siphon a small amount from. If supporting local retail allows them to tap into the 90% of purchases that still happen off-line, then why wouldn't they do that?

Amazon doesn't care where their money comes from. Tapping into the on-line world was simply the easiest way to go after transactions. If a small business can save a fair amount of money by looking to Amazon for services they previously got elsewhere, it should be considered. It is likely not part of some grand plan for Amazon to put the small business out of business.

There are many types of business that don't intersect with Amazons model, including products and services. Amazon is not likely getting involved in accounting and bookkeeping, legal, construction, landscaping, healthcare, sports and fitness, lumber yards, restaurant and bars, and more. This would be a logical place for Amazon to get their feet wet in processing.

Most of these operations are local small business which is the perfect place to introduce these systems. The companies don't have hundreds or thousands of locations to deal with a change.

I wonder if Amazon will use the new payment system to pay back investors and equity owners who have fueled Amazon's unchecked pursuit of . . . well, growth, growth, growth to mask an, essentially, unprofitable, unprofitable, unprofitable platform.

Every time that we read about Amazon.con, it is about a new business initiative or the introduction of a new product or service.

While others only try to sell their digital tablets as electronic books or Internet devices, Amazon.com also offers solutions and applications for business people running on Kindle.

Its initiative is good; however about the checkout system for physical retailers, it looks like Amazon doesn’t have experience in this kind of solution and the business customers don’t like to be part of the experiment of their providers of technology.

So am I going to be now ran out of business? Because a large corporation that is coming in can afford to dump the product below cost to run all the little guys like me out of business. And they always do.

I would like to see this idea flourish. I could envision a department store providing this tablet to their associates on the floor, who could help a customer with a purchase and close the sale with a credit card right on the spot. If they want to pay with cash, they can "freeze" the order and take them over to a central payment area to settle their sale right at that moment. Ideally once the sale is complete, the RFID tags that would be used as a security mechanism would be disabled and thus the customer can just walk out with their paid items. This concept is already being proven in the Apple store today.

My question is that do you think Apple as a tablet maker would be any different? Also how do we know that Verifone, NCR, and other payment gateways are not collecting this data and using it for their purposes to make a dollar? I think it makes sense for a tablet maker (Apple, Microsoft, or Amazon) to sell this service and extend their tablet technology to a different market.

I'm sorry but I think AMZN is either delusional, incredibly arrogant and/or full of BS in regards to the payment system outlined in this article. What retailer of any size would allow what is likely their most hated competitor to sell them such a service? Why would they possibly allow AMZN to make a profit (although doubtful) and get any information on their customer? AMZN keeps adding business lines that underprice and encroach on so many businesses that it seems likely that the company will get an increasingly cold shoulder from "potential" commercial customers. What major retailer would want to sell Kindles (WMT, TGT and others dropped the line-incredible that they ever offered them), buy Kiva warehouse equipment, use AWS and now buy a payment system from AMZN? PEP spun off the YUM restaurant business because competing chains wouldn't buy PEP products. Its incredible that NFLX uses AWS services and it would seem like its only a matter of time that they stop feeding their competitor (maybe they're only adding to AMZN's losses as their biggest AWS customer) and find a new provider. Its incredible that analysts and the media seem to give AMZN such a free pass on just about everything it does and says. Its relatively easy to increase sales when you are constantly adding products and business lines with no proof (or apparent need in some eyes) of the ability to make a meaningful profit. Contrary to the apparent popular opinion, AMZN is an also ran in many business lines (tablets, music, streaming movies, etc. and they certainly will be in the ultra low margin grocery business. Many of AMZN's competitors were foolish for allowing the company to even survive (and some paid the ultimate price for that mistake) but a number of them, WMT, Macy's etc. seemed to have learned the lesson and are coming on strong with PROFITS to back up their efforts.

I would love to see someone ask hard questions of AMZN's management and do some critical analysis instead of worshipping at the feet of the (unproven) "genius", Jeff Bezos. Thursday's earnings announcement will surely be another love-fest.

All retailers are trying to sell something. But based on what you have previously purchased, they can make offers that will be something more likely to be purchased.

One one hand, it's creepy, but on the other hand, I'm glad I don't get offers for Polly Pocket dolls when I don't have any daughters. Like it or not, targeted marketing is here to stay. Try making a cash sale without giving any personal info somewhere that isn't a gas station.

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